Parents' Night In

Photo courtesy of SXC.

 Most parents covet a few hours to themselves. My husband and I are no exception. But parents' night out is overrated.

The idea is nice: Leave the kids with a trusted sitter and fall in love again over a leisurely dinner for two at some romantic restaurant just down the road. Yeah, right.

Let's start with the trusted sitter. Finding a sitter is easy. Finding someone you trust is not. Of course, they are out there. I babysat my way through college, and the kids I watched actually felt like my own. Such a rapport takes time, though. Meanwhile, you have to hire someone you'd like to trust, pay her $8 or $9 an hour, and worry the whole time.

That wipes out "leisurely" from your dinner, because you are in a hurry to get home. $8 an hour adds up quickly. Chances are good your kids will be awake when you return anyway, so the sooner you get back and put them to bed, the more fun tomorrow will be.

And falling in love again? My husband and I are more likely to argue during parents' night out than we are at any other time during the month. Something always comes up that makes a simple evening for two incredibly complicated. He has to stay late at work. Traffic is horrible. The restaurant isn't quite as romantic as we'd hoped (often because there is a two-year-old at the table next to us--exactly what we were trying to escape).

So "parents' night out" has become "parents' night in" at my house. My husband and I set aside an hour for each other after Noah is asleep. We sit at the kitchen table and talk. We open a bottle of wine and a tub of ice cream. We watch a movie. We don't have to pay a sitter and then worry about how well she and Noah are getting along. We don't have to find the most romantic restaurant in town. Things often come up, but it doesn't matter. There is always tomorrow night.